h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Mines of Joachimsthal - A5882781
Author: Azara - U172739

As usual, all comments are welcome!

You've been busy Fascinating Entry Azara, enjoyed reading it immensely. Now I know where gnomes came from I always thought it was EuroDisney

Wonderful h2g2 EG linking opportunities flooding this Entry (my 'thing' I guess, linking...)

Again, I'm no Sub or grammar king, so I'll leave that stuff to the usual posse

Intriguing, makes me mind work lots n stuff.

MJ

I have to admit that I don't worry too much about links when I'm getting an entry ready--there's always the week in PR to do that. And it's a handy way of bumping an entry without actually saying 'bump', eg:
Thursday: add a few h2g2 links and say so
Sunday: Debate whether linking to the h2g2 entry on Blue pigments is a good or bad idea, since it refers to ultramarine, not cobalt blue
...repeat as necessary!


Azara

Fascinating stuff (I never knew that's where 'dollar' came from )

I don't think you need the two headers though (The Early Years and Radioactive Metals) - they just stick out a bit where this reads very well as breaking up quite naturally into the seven sections (after the intro): just a suggestion, but what about removing those and then turning the six subheaders into headers?

>>the term 'Thaler' spread<< - italicised in the first instance, it either needs to be so there again or given a lower-case 't' (as with 'dollar' afterwards).

>>by the King of Bohemia, Frederick<< - by Frederick, King of Bohemia (I think that looks better, anyway).

>>the 30 years war<< - because that's usually given as a proper name, I think the rules need bending here, so "the Thirty Years War"

>>source of frustration--<< - there's something up with the dashes at the end of this. That same paragraph and the one after it, there are three 'century's that need giving a capital 'C' - a couple in the final section too).

>>a role model for 20th century women<< - 20th-Century

>>eventually lead to<< - led

>>Still, from dollars to radon detectors, there are still<< - some way of avoiding the repetition of 'still' there?

Great Entry Azara!

You're right, Trin--it looks better with all equal headers, rather than sub-headers. (I plan these out in my head, so I always start with the headers and subheaders, but the final length of the sections doesn't always match my expectations!)

Sorting the Uranium headers, I've just realised that I didn't specifically mention the discovery of radiactivity (as opposed to the discovery of radium and polonium). Now fixed!

'thaler' fixed
'Frederick, King of Bohemia' fixed
'Thirty Years War' fixed
source of frustration--<< - there's something up with the dashes at the end of this. It's a Distributed Proofreaders convention for dashes which is ingrained in my style. I've changed them to a colon.
18th, 19th 20th Centuries fixed
'which would eventually lead' fixed ('would' got lost in cutting and pasting)
'Still....still' One changed to 'Nevertheless'

for the comments!
Azara

Good entry!

There's one place where you used double quotes which should be single quotes: "health".

Great Entry!

I'm not sure you should call Agricola the first metallurgist, though. The first metallurgist we can name is often held to be Theophilus of Nuremburg, c 1100. Even 'De Re Metallica' is preceded in its main subject-matter (copper smelting) by Biringuccio's 'Pirotechnica' published 15 years earlier in 1540.

Another innovation usually credited to the Erzgebirge miners is the first use of explosives in mining (at least in the West). A date of 1627 is documented.

Thanks, Pin!

I've changed the header to "Agricola - a Pioneer of Metallurgy".

I've added a couple of sentences to the Agricola section:
"The Erzgebirge remained a centre of metallurgy and practical mining knowledge over the next few hundred years. The first documented Western use of explosives in mining took place in this region in 1627."

I've given you a customised credit for "Additional Research"--I'm told it will show up if the entry makes it to the Front Page.

again!

Azara

And links now added to:
Czech
The elements: Names and origins - A-E (on cobalt)
The elements: Names and origins - F-N (on nickel)
The elements: Names and origins - O-Z (on uranium)
Uranus
Radioactivity

Azara

Kind but undeserved, Azara.

I guess if you want I could offer you a lot more info that could be added. There's quite a lot of archaeometallurgy on my bookshelves! But IMO the piece is is a good one of the right length and depth as it is now. Dry historical facts wouldn't complement the interesting stuff you've already chosen.

I'm just pleased that metals and mining get their share of cover in the Guide.

I guess I should go show my thanks by trying very hard to be interested in Opera. Maybe later...

Not undeserved, Pin--both your points were ones I wouldn't have come across on my own, so that's "Additional Research" as far as I'm concerned!

I'm glad you think the piece is of the right length and depth now: I was hoping to make it accessible to the casual reader, but I'm relieved it doesn't grate on someone who really knows this stuff.

And on the topic of opera, "The Operatic Way of Death" is actually fairly light-hearted, and (I hope) painless to the reader, even if the subjects suffer!


Azara

OK, if you're going to flatter me I feel obliged to give you one more factoid.

It's true that 'De Re Metallica' is imprecisely translated. The most comprehensive translation into English (comprising all twelve books) was completed in 1912 in the USA, and an eminent mining engineer who was one of the contributors wrote a critical review of the collective work in the 'Mining Magazine' in the same year.

This gentleman wrote : "We need make no apologies for De Re Metallica. During 180 years it was not superseded as the text-book and guide to miners and metallurgists, for until Schluter's great work on metallurgy in 1738 it had no equal. That it passed through some ten editions in three languages at a period when the printing of such a volume was no ordinary undertaking, is in itself sufficient evidence of the importance in which it was held, and is a record that no other volume upon the same subjects has equalled since".

The writer's name? Herbert Hoover, later to become 31st President of the United States.

If you put more than a sentence about this in, though, I'll be disgusted. And I think you should completely avoid any mention of the fact that it wasn't until 1992 that the French could be bothered to translate it

Now I think I should go learn about opera...

Pin

Footnote about Hoover added.

Azara

Just speed read it - looks great.

I really enjoyed this - I never knew that's where the word dollar originated!

One minor quibble, if I may:

>When large amounts of silver were discovered here in 1516...
>When large amounts of silver ore were discovered here in 1516...

Without the word "ore" my brain sees pre-formed ingots lying around on hillsides, rather than the mineral deposits. Maybe it's just me.

Great!

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done Azara!

Though as I'm still at work it'd more likely be

Congratulations azara, very fascinating entry